Chemical Instability
by Lanie Kay-Aleese
Summary: It wasn't Professor Z's fault that his students fell in love with him. It was chemical instability, that was all. Slash, teacher student relationship.
1. Chapter 1

M! Mature issues! Slash AND teacher-student. "Gasp". Okay, so this story is set prior to the Conclusions arc, but fits in with canon... Not!!! It's more of a "what if" than anything else. But yeah, this is my first and probably only story for this series? It'll be three chapters long, and I've already written them, so that's good. I don't know why, but the moment I saw Professor Z's face, I knew I had to write a story for him. But he's quite a piece of eye-candy so maybe that was it.

**Chemical Instability**  
by Lanie Kay-Aleese

Noel knew the way they looked at him sometimes.

It wasn't just adoration. It wasn't just the recognition of a scholar that he perceived in some of those doe-eyed faces. It was a darker-eyed look, with a sharper gleam in it. He'd decided at one point, with some relief, that they were so busy trying to understand science that they couldn't understand their own chemistry. They couldn't understand their own hormones changing and soaring into higher and higher modes.

Well, strange things just happened sometimes.

One of the weird things that happened? One of the strange things at the "Black Hole" High? One day, those students weren't sure of their feelings and hid behind textbooks; the next day, they knew their feelings and were acting on them. And they were acting on _him_.

He should've known something was wrong when the janitor had given him a look of amusement or warning of some sort as he'd walked out of the teacher's quarters that morning.

But there hadn't been any of the other warnings that he'd come to expect. He hadn't given any lesson that would eerily foreshadow this incident. The incident itself didn't seem to be as abnormal as he'd come to expect: the school hadn't cought a cold, no one appeared to have traveled through time or have the inclination to do so.

This time, the changes were of a far more deceptive nature - only becoming apparent as he became within view... And he couldn't find a single shred of science to attribute it to. All he had were the symptoms.

Symptom One: How could he pinpoint it, exactly...?

It had taken him three times as long as usual to get to his office from his quarters. What was usually a brisk four minute walk had become a quarter-hour trek through a swarm of his students, latching onto him and clinging and clamoring for his attention. He was fairly certain, by the time he arrived at the classroom, that the students lined up at his door weren't soliciting help with the earlier day's homework. Instead, they were soliciting _themselves_ on every spare inch of his flesh that they could grope towards.

He'd known that some of them may have unintentionally flirted with him in the past, but full-scale seductions from every girl he saw? It made him queasy and sick inside. The scale of their actions just proved that they were out of control.

He'd had to slam the door in their faces in a rare but violent fit of energy -- it wasn't something that he had enjoyed doing, definitely not -- but he did it nonetheless. When it was finished, when he had his back planted against the door and was locking the students _out_ (he never thought he'd see the day), Professor Noel Zachary was panting heavily. He looked around his science lab - empty, still, stagnant. But the air was not smothering, and that was good. So he slid down to the tile floor, rested his hands in his head, and waited with only the company of his thoughts running amuck in his head.

Initial Hypothesis: An aphrodesiac, influencing those who would otherwise not express their attraction to express it at the largest extreme.

Noel hoped that this first hypothesis would correct. Any alternative would mean that everyone was attracted to him, and therefore no one was safe, and in spite of everything, Noel truly was a positive man by nature. So he hoped and he waited.

Corrine was the first to test his hypothesis. He'd let her in, hesitantly; she was involved with another student after all, and she kept insisting that she needed to warn him about something, something strange that was happening. Noel decided to risk it. There was no doubt that this had to do with the multi-dimensional vortex in the basement. Surely his science team could sort this problem out...

Yet the moment Corrine stepped through the doorway and saw him and said "Professor!", her demeanor underwent a gruesome change. Her face contorted and her body stiffened. Then - she relaxed substantially - and softened her features with a close-lipped smile. Corrine's chin dropped a little and she looked up at him from across the room. And Noel found himself _highly_ disturbed.

He locked her out as well.

_Initial hypothesis incorrect._

At that point, he had no other choice but to lock them all out, everyone. Students, and staff, alike; he didn't know who he could trust to retain themselves. He couldn't even trust himself. These people who were trying to seduce him - were his _students_, and if they didn't stop harassing him he was bound to get violent. Noel thought about this, while sitting with his feet on his desk and playing with a stress ball. A part of him was worried. More than a part, to be honest.

Noel forced himself to draw a new, more accurate hypothesis from the data. The erratic, obsessive behavior he'd witnessed towards himself was not natural. It seemed instead that the most recent change at Blake Holsey was the effect of some strange love-potion, an aphrodesiac, that seemed to be centered at himself.

A teacher.

He had no idea what started the chain of reactions, much less how it could be involved with Pierce, or wormholes, or what have you. But it was evident that a constant in the equation was himself. But he didn't know the dependent variables. Would the aphrodesiac affect all age groups? Would it affect _both genders_? And, what if this - this love-possessing thing - was transferable? That would be the biggest, most frightening issue, if somehow, the love potion 'rubbed off' of him, and onto one of his students. If the aphrodesiac made _him_ attracted to one of his students? - then he was doomed.

It was obvious that he couldn't risk an encounter of that sort.

But without the help of his students, the ones he sponsored in science club, who was going to help him solve the mystery?

Professor Z squeezed the stress ball.

He was glad that he'd called class off. He'd need a lot of time to work on this problem uninterrupted - since he was going to have to find a 'cure' on his own. Unfortunately, it didn't look like he'd be getting another meal in safety for a while. At least, not until curfew. At least, not until the aphrodesiac ran its course and stopped making people fall in love with him.

He was already in love, and that was enough of a problem in itself.

_**Proof:** Let **r equal review** and let i equal integer  
if r times i is less than or equal to 1, then r times i equals chapter i._

**Error - Incorrect Formula. Value of "r" must be defined. **  
(in layman's terms, write a review for this chapter and you'll get the next one)


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for reviewing, mocasoul and canby1992! A new chapter for all of you readers to enjoy. Earlier disclaimers still apply!

**Chemical Instability. Chapter 2**  
by Lanie Kay-Aleese

"Professor Z?"

The voice stopped him midstep. For a moment, Noel Zachary was distinctly aware of his foot that was raised above the ground and now dangling without purpose. He set it and down and he turned around, hesitant. He recognized the voice (how could he not?), and even if it was a familiar and friendly one, Z was still nervous to see the face that matched the voice echoing across the hallway that they'd found themselves in.

It was past midnight. The emergency lighting struck strange luminescent shadows on the boy, standing just several yards away. Dim as it was, he could see Lucas' rimless, rectangular glasses and the way they gleamed, hiding his expression. Professor Zachary swallowed. _Of course. Of course it would be you who would catch me as I was escaping._

"Lucas. What are you doing out? It's past curfew," he asked, pocketing his fidgeting hands.

"I've been looking for you," the boy said, plainly.

"Did something happen?" Noel answered immediately, and took a step forward before his better judgement took a hold of him.

"Yes, I think that something strange is happening again," Lucas replied, then rustled his sandy brown hair. "I wanted to test a hypothesis of mine."

"Is that so?" Professor Zachary actually did shuffle backwards at this, and Lucas quirked a soft smile at the action.

"Yeah. I figured this - weird problem of yours hasn't gone away yet, then. Don't be paranoid about me attacking you, that's my job to be paranoid, remember?"

The professor stiffened. "Lucas. I hope you're going to tell me that you're unaffected."

For a moment, Z was tense. The adrenaline began to stream from the pit of his stomach and his throat and he definitely felt it beneath his arms. Then, suddenly, Lucas actually chuckled.

"Nah. The pheromones don't affect me. I'm the same as always."

_Thank god. It only affects girls, then..._

"While I'm sorely tempted to reprimand you for being out past your bedtime," Professor Z smiled, re-assuringly, for both his student and himself. "... I must ask for your assistance in creating some sort of solution to, at the very least, dilute this aphrodesiac."

"You don't think it's just that you have an inbalance of pheromones?" Lucas wondered.

"I couldn't say. We'll need to do some tests as soon as possible," said the taller mentor, and suddenly, a dark thought flashed through his head. He wasn't allowed alone in a room with a student at night. What if the aphrodesiac suddenly began working on Lucas? For example, if boys simply had higher resistance to the pheromones? If anything happened... Well, he was the teacher; he _would_ be held responsible for his actions.

"Do you think we ought to wake up Marshall or Vaughn?"

"No!" Lucas responded quickly. "The - the aphrodesiac, the pheromone, this attractive scent or whatever it is, I don't think they could physically handle it. Their bodies are very overworked right now."

Professor Z crinkled his forehead. It made sense with his theory... "But-"

"Really. You don't want to know what they've been getting up to," Lucas laughed weakly. His teacher watched him, closeby but distantly as they walked down the hallway. They began their walk down the school hallway, with Neol chewing on the thoughts that stuck together thickly. He felt like his were the drying tree sap that runs along the trunk of a deciduous pine tree. They were to be touched lightly - patiently - but better yet, left untouched, so they could glue into place.

They has just turned the corner to enter his classroom when somehow Noel was struck with the absurdity of the situation.

"I just don't expect it to be a pheromones issue... It's some subjective irrationality that is forcing me to wonder how it could be pheromones - that's connected to - everything else going on. The whole 'queen bee' situation already took place and the same sort of problem doesn't usually repeat itself. You were one of her many converts, weren't you?"

Lucas flashed a sheepish grin. "Yeah, I did, and not long after that I had that weird DNA switch-up."

Something in his voice made Noel pause. "Lucas?"

"Sometimes, I actually envy myself for that. Being able to, for a little while, be happy with lots of friends and people fawning over me. But I couldn't be that way now if I wanted to."

"That's not true," Professor Z cut in, "It was your DNA but... it was still you underneath all of that."

"Sheesh, Z. I was kind of kidding," said Lucas, flushed.

Noel was all too happy to have something else to talk about besides his own problem. They had arrived at the door to his room and Noel put his hand on the knob, and before turning it, he turned to Lucas.

"You were going to hurt yourself if you hadn't gone back to the way you were before. You were so fearless that it left you imbalanced."

"And now you're so imbalanced that you're afraid. So you don't have any place to lecture me, you know."

"Excuse me?" Noel was sure he'd misheard. Even though he was casual with his students, it just - it just didn't happen often that any of them would be so disrespectful to him. Not Lucas. Even if he knew more than he ought to about himself.

Lucas just shoved through the open door and walked to Noel's desk, which he sat on top of.

"You're leaving Blake Holsey after we graduate. Why now?"

With a sigh, Noel closed the door shut behind him and sat down in his chair. He looked up at Lucas and was momentarily thrown off by the fact that they were at different heights.

"Well, it just felt like time to move on with this part of my life."

"You 'felt like it'? _Feelings_ aren't much of something to base decisions off of."

"There are other reasons," Z returned.

"Such as what?"

It took a while for him to answer with Lucas staring at him so piercingly from behind his glasses, as if he knew that there wasn't a good reason for it before Z had opened his mouth.

"I want a job that doesn't keep me up at night."

"You want something normal? How could you be content with normalcy ever again?"

"After this whole thing is resolved, the school will be 'normal', Lucas. It would be unsettling."

"What would be unsettling, Z? The normalcy, or the fact that you wouldn't be 'needed' anymore?"

"Lucas-"

"That's it, right?" Lucas was triumphant. "I know what you're talking about. I know what _I'm_ talking about, Z. And the only thing I _really_ know about you is that there's something you want so badly that you're afraid of it, and you're running away. This whole thing that's happening is your fault! You want so much to be wanted, and the way people are acting -- it'll only stop when you're not afraid!"

Hearing Lucas talk like this made Noel more afraid than anything else that had happened for months. And perhaps the only thing that had made Noel more afraid in his entire life was when he'd woken up from a dream and he sat up in his bed, completely alone.

TBC.


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks for reviewing, canby1992, Kristin, mocasoul, and zfan06!! And now for the conclusion, which is slash. If you don't like it, don't read it. And without further ado...

**Chemical Instability. Chapter 3**  
by Lanie Kay-Aleese

Noel wrote the word _empirical evidence_ in capital letters on the chalkboard, and circled it haphazardly.

"Let's try to identify as much as we can, then. See if we can find anything that correlates," he said.

"I have a theory," Lucas said, "That you're the crux of this situation. Something has changed in your nature or in your environment, which triggered Victor Pierce's whatever in the basement, which caused this abnormal response in other people."

"When did it - when did you notice it starting?"

"Start listing observations from this morning on," Lucas suggested, to which Z wrote out _Janitor nods head_, _inappropriate behavior first observed from group of females_, _inappropriate behavior observed from individual female (closer relationship to subject)_, _appropriate behavior observed from individual male (closer relationship to subject)._ Finally, Professor Zachary took a step back and observed the information critically.

"That's not much to work with," Lucas said aloud. "Hasn't there been any thing else?"

"I've tried to keep out of situations which would allow me to isolate a variable. I don't have enough data to know if I only affect a certain type of person, or if it is all persons during a certain time-frame, or whether it depends on me."

"And you're not eager to test those possibilities?"

"Of course not!"

Lucas held out his hands, palms open - "Geez, I was just sayin'!" - he said, clearly compunctious.

Z sighed and ruffled his hand through his hair.

"Sorry, Lucas... It's been a long day."

"No kidding," retorted Lucas shortly. It would've been more impacting if he hadn't punctuated the end of the sentence with a yawn -- an action brought Noel back to the present moment. It was five minutes past 2.

"You should probably be getting to bed," he ventured. "It's gotten really late."

Lucas waved it off. "Nah, Z, don't worry about it, Marshall's snoring would probably keep me up anyway."

"Well, there's not much left to do here. Maybe a night's sleep would help."

"But what'll you do in the morning? Play hooky _again_? You know, Principal Durst-"

"I'll take responsibility for it," he cut in, "But I don't want to be condoning your misbehavior."

Lucas folded his arms. "Are you seriously trying to pull 'ethics' on me?"

"I'm your teacher," he burst out, and then - simply because there was a need to point out the boundary - Noel knew he'd crossed over it and he was lost, forever lost.

It gripped Noel with the definite urge to loosen his collar, but he held back with a nervous tenacity. Lucas waited and the build-up grew heavier with every passing moment, and even now he couldn't be certain that this theory wasn't completely ridiculous. Finally, Lucas slid off of the desk, exasperation written on his face.

"You're not just my teacher, Z. I'd say you were my friend, but I've known you for too long to say that and still not know the important things. Like what your favorite food is. Or what your family is like. So I don't know what to call it - but at least I know what it isn't."

"Lucas-"

Z caught his breath. For now he could see the expression in Lucas' eyes, from behind the glasses, and he was paralyzed. He couldn't look away. Those intense, mind-blowingly reason-stifling eyes seemed to be so alive and they were getting closer to him, he knew it, and he shrunk back in his chair.

Lucas placed his hands on the armrests of Noel's chair and leaned forward.

"When have I ever been just your student, Z?"

_Never_, he thought before he could even catch himself, and it didn't matter anyway because Lucas _knew_ that the ethics didn't mean shit. And, it dawned on him that Lucas must have lied about the pheromones, he must've been affected (maybe to a lesser degree, a more controllable degree?). What it meant was that he'd wanted so much to not be alone that now, here he was, trapped in a prison of his own making. The ends of Lucas' shirt, untucked as always, fell across Noel's chest.

"Don't do this," Noel whispered, his voice pitchy and breathless, "I know you feel like this right now, but you're not going to feel like this forever..."

"How do you know?" Lucas returned, his breath whispering on Noel's cheek.

"Why did you lie to me about not being affected by the pheromones?" Noel shot back without sting.

Even closer -- Lucas moved even closer and spoke not a millimeter away from his lips --

"I didn't lie, Z. I wasn't affected by the pheromones because I already wanted you."

It did him in. It was the nail in his coffin, and Noel Zachary threw all logic to the wind and tilted up Lucas's chin and crushed their lips together.

Lucas' mouth was soft and pliant, and Noel plunged inside, roughly, curling his arms around Lucas so tightly that he could have never escaped, not now. Without delicacy or grace, he let the kiss invade him and it filled him with a wild fire, wiping out the ability to breathe or stand in seconds. Desperately Lucas clung to his shirt, fighting to keep up, fighting to stay conscious. There was nothing in the world but Lucas and this kiss, and the unbearable heat circling within his body. It would damn him, he was sure, but he never wanted it to end.

Eventually he withdrew, just enough to pull away, and dimly Noel heard Lucas wheeze for air as if he could no more breathe than himself. He did not relax his grip and was glad because something told him that Lucas wouldn't be able to handle that, and he couldn't handle it either. So instead, they sat together, leaning on each other, holding each other, breathless.

"Sorry," he panted, after a while. "I shouldn't have done that, I -"

Lucas cut him off with a kiss, and whatever half-baked apology had been forming on his lips disappeared forever. Eagerly they pressed against one another, tasting the thrill of a kiss too long held back, desire too long held in check. It went on and for a moment, everything was lost, and Noel lost his tension and he felt his hands unclench, and tear off Lucas' glasses to bring them just that much closer, and Lucas wrapped his legs around his back and pressed so tightly against him, and that's when Noel seemed to become aware of himself and withdrew his lips again. His forehead tipped against Lucas', then buried into his shoulder.

He was shaking.

"Z," Lucas' voice came out hoarse, and wet, and dry all at once. It was barely a syllable of a sound, and even so, it sounded like the very word for worship, adoration and, and Noel began to panic. This had to stop. This _couldn't happen._

"I can't do this," he whispered against the scratchy fabric of Lucas' clothes.

"Please, Z," Lucas repeated, his breath catching in his throat. He shifted his weight, reminding Noel just how close they really were.

"You're my student, Lucas... My _male_ student! I can't do this!"

"But you want to! And I want to! I'm at the age of consent, Z!"

Noel cursed, and this of all things, caused Lucas to sit back, stunned. No matter what had happened, no matter how strange or startling or even frightening, Professor Z had never cursed in front of his students before. And now he was in front of one of his students as Noel and it was different.

"This isn't supposed to happen," he said at last, pinching his nose. "I never... You never made it seem like this would be possible at all. I don't understand why you... I thought that you and Josie, for a while...?"

"I was just jealous 'cuz Marshall already had Corrine, you know? Josie-Josie... well, she chose Vaughn, and... I kind of realized that I was okay with that. It wasn't that I'd wanted her, I'd just wanted to win her, like it was a game. Which sounds really wrong, but that's what happened, and so the best man won and all that."

"But why did you choose me?"

Lucas slid off of his lap at this and turned to the desk, hand against the desk.

"I could ask you the same question, Z," replied Lucas, with an uncertain sort of anxiety touching the accent of his words. "Why me? But you don't have an answer, do you? The truth is, I think, attraction doesn't have to do with everything obvious... It's chemical, you know?"

"That's no sort of science I've ever heard of."

"That's because it's not scientific. It can't be made into an experiment that others can perform and get the same results. It can be tested but not concluded. You can hypothesize forever and what good would it do? Living like that is so bland, Z. Don't you know that at least some things are subjective and irrational, and they're the best things that can ever happen to us?"

Lucas' shoulders heaved as he took in a deep breath. When he turned, his eyes were shining as he fastened them on his teachers'.

"You're smart, so smart. But even you know that the only way to stop this is to understand that you are wanted... and that you have to stop being afraid."

"How will that change anything?" answered Noel, bitterly. The taste of Lucas was still in his mouth and it was mingled with his guilt.

"You want to be needed, so you now are releasing some pheromone that makes people need you. But you're afraid to be needed or wanted. The only way to balance everything, Z, is for you to stop wanting to be needed. You need to feel needed... You have to let yourself, okay?"

For a moment, a familiar nervousness flashed across Lucas' face. It was something for Noel to cling to and it helped.

"If there's really no other choice..." he murmured. "I'm in too deep already."

Lucas covered Noel's hand with his own.

"What else is new?"

When Noel looked up and into Lucas' eyes, he realized something: Lucas was smiling because he _wanted_ to.

COMPLETE. Please don't forget to tell me what you thought. I'm inflammable.


End file.
